I didn’t know if you could hear the alarm on the roof, so I ran back inside. People tried to stop me, but I just ripped their hands off my arms and pushed past them, shouted that my sister was still in there. I tried the lift, which was probably stupid, but anyway it had switched itself off with the alarm, so I went up the stairwell instead. I didn’t see anyone else come down.
It took about ten minutes to get to the top, all eighteen floors, and with the alarm blasting the whole time. When I walked out onto the roof, I was sweating and light-headed, my ears were ringing, and it was so, so dark up there. It felt like walking into space or something. I thought I could see Zoe, because I could see the glow of her phone right at the edge of the roof, but when I called out, she didn’t answer. It was only when I got closer that I saw she wasn’t there—it was only the phone. I picked it up and saw she’d started writing a text to someone. And either she’d deleted the recipient, or she’d never put one in. It just said:
How could you do this to me?
And that was it. As far as anyone can tell, she never walked out of that building. She was never found inside it either. She went from being a person I spoke to every day of my life to this sort of nowhere girl. We’ve never seen or heard from her since.
From: [email protected]
Sent: 2019-01-31 05:11
To: you
on Wed, Jan 30, 2019, Evie Mitchell [email protected] wrote:
Hey JK—you around?
# # #
on Wed, Jan 30, 2019, Evie Mitchell [email protected] wrote:
Are you awake? Need to talk. Don’t worry about the time, there’s no way I’ll sleep.
# # #
Can you just call me?
When I’m assembling these chapters I fully transcribe one person at a time then start seeing how and where they cut together. If there’s overlap I call up whoever’s involved for responses or commentary so it all flows.
I’m toward the end of part two so I spent most of the day at a coffee shop editing. Around dinner time I realized I’d completely fucked up something Liu Wai said and made a note to double-check it when I got home. I went to the tape about an hour ago to try and confirm what I’d got wrong and it was blank. I thought I must have put the wrong one in, but I tried the next and the next and the next. I’ve tried both players, all my tapes.
Every single recording I’ve made is blank. It’s ALL fucking GONE.
I’m fucking freaking out rn, can you call? It’s 0XXXXXXXXX7.
Sending you part two of TCS now so I can be sure it’s safe somewhere.
XXXX XXX XXXX XXXX
e
Part Two
The Unusual Suspects
10.
“Half Midnight”
Difficult questions must be answered in the immediate aftermath of Zoe’s disappearance, but as the police and her parents arrive on the scene, Andrew, Kimberly and Jai are nowhere to be found.
SARAH MANNING, Former detective constable, Greater Manchester Police:
I was assigned as the FLO—family liaison officer—to the Nolans on Saturday, December 17. This is the day Zoe went missing, when we really didn’t know much at all. There’s a common misconception that FLOs are there to stand in the background of crime dramas making cups of tea, but really, at least at its most effective, the role should be investigative. It’s true that you’re the main point of contact for family members. You need to keep them in the loop and answer all questions—to clarify what’s happening during an investigation and offer support where necessary.
First and foremost, though, you’re there to gather evidence.
In a case like this, nothing’s more important than bringing that missing person home. I was twenty-six years old at the time, and it was my first posting with a family.
SALLY NOLAN:
We were collecting them on the Saturday. The plan was to bring them home and unpack and get dinner, then maybe watch a Christmas film while we decorated the tree. Rob had gone into town for a haircut, so I was on my own when I got the call. I thought it was a joke. I thought it had to be a joke until I called Rob and tried to tell him what they’d told me.
ROBERT NOLAN:
I ignored the first call, like. Just let it vibrate. I thought I’d ring back after I’d finished at the barber’s, but it kept on and on, and when I saw it were Sally, I picked up. I couldn’t understand what she was saying to me. In the end, I shouted something, like, “Just tell me what you’re trying to say!”
Then I honestly don’t know. I think I more or less got out of the chair and drove home. I still had the bib on when Sal came out to the car. We were in Manchester before she noticed I only had half a haircut. I walked around like that for three days.
LIU WAI:
I probably wasn’t the best person for them to talk to at eleven o’clock in the morning, but it felt like everyone had just gone. Like, Andrew, Kim and Jai all just disappeared around the same time as Zoe. I couldn’t get Kim on the phone and I didn’t have Andrew’s number. I was panicking, talking to Mr. and Mrs. Nolan too fast, just overflowing with caffeine and fear. I’d hardly slept. I could hear myself going a million miles a second, but I couldn’t slow down. They kept asking me where their daughters were, and I had to keep telling them I didn’t know.
FINTAN MURPHY:
This was the first time I’d met Zoe’s parents, and I suppose I was in a slightly better state of mind than poor Liu. She’d known about Zoe’s disappearance since almost the moment it happened. She’d been due to meet her on the roof of course, and I don’t think she’d slept much in the interim. I’d gone home after Andrew and Jai’s fight and not heard about Zoe until the next morning.
My flatmate, Connor, had lent out some speakers for the party in the tower, and I’d gone with him to Owens Park to help load them up. In the event, once I heard what was going on there, I left him to it and reported to the police so I could join the first search party. I tried to be strong and direct for Robert and Sally, but it seemed as though the news was all bad. Zoe hadn’t been seen for something like eleven hours by this point, and her last known location was the high rooftop of a burning building while intoxicated.
To make matters worse, Kimberly had wandered off soon after giving a statement to the police. No one knew where she was, and no one could get hold of her, not for the rest of that night or the following morning. We were worried sick. Even more so when we heard Kimberly was on her way back to Owens Park with the police, that she’d been arrested for something.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
I thought Zoe had gone over the ledge of the building, that she’d fallen or jumped. Everything was so dark up there that when I got to the edge myself, I nearly stepped off it by accident. I could see cars and buses going up and down Oxford Road, lit windows all around me for miles, but not Zoe, not anywhere. I shouted her name, got down on my knees and leaned out over the side of the building, as far as I could go. On the ground, at the foot of the tower, I could see this mass of people, just shapes moving under the lights. I thought she must be down there, I thought she must be dead, and this voice in my head told me to follow her, to lean out a little farther and let go.